The Republican Change: A salvaging deed |
By acceding to the Presidency on the 7th of November 1987, President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali has spared the country the pitfalls of economic bankruptcy and institutional collapse.
An institutionalized democracy |
During his 17 years of rule, President Ben Ali has successfully managed to merge the democratic transition within an institutional rule of law and national harmony. The foundations of a real democracy are set up in a progressive, secure and harmonious fashion, far from any upheavals. Elections are systematically held on time. The opposition parties are represented for the first time in parliament.
A pluralistic presidential election took place in October 1999 for the first time in the history of Tunisia . Also, in May 26, 2002, a referendum was for the first time organized in the country. It allowed the people to decide in all freedom and sovereignty on the reform of the constitution.
Human rights: a global vision and a reformist accomplishment |
Since the November-7th 1987 Change, human rights are addressed in Tunisia as an indivisible whole, encompassing at once the rights of the individual, those of the group, the political and civil rights as well as the economic, social and cultural ones.
In this spirit, Tunisia committed itself to rehabilitate the state of law, to strengthen the foundations of the Republic, to pave the way for the promotion of an independent and efficient justice, to implement democracy and pluralism and to firmly enhance the attributes of citizenship. Basing its action on the belief that there can be no democracy without development nor development without democracy, Tunisia has united all the energies of its society towards this coherent accomplishment. It gave special attention to women with the firm conviction that human rights cannot possibly flourish in a society where the condition of women is subservient to that of men.
